She reached the semi-finals of Wimbledon in 1999 as a 17-year-old, and her last match win at Melbourne Park before the 2017 tournament came in 1998 in the first round against Rennae Stubbs.

The year before that - a whole two decades ago - she claimed the junior girls title.

But her career stalled, and she has not come close to repeating her Wimbledon run - until now.

The tennis prodigy spent time away from the tour in the mid-2000s, which she has linked to her upbringing with an abusive father.

Later on Monday, Lucic-Baroni said her on-court message wasn't a targeted barb but an outburst of joy.

"People think they know a lot about my history, but they really do not," she said.

"A lot of the times when I hear, injuries and things (were the reason I was out), those were not the problems at all.

"One day when I feel like talking about it, I will. Right now is not that day.

"They asked me a question, and that was the first thing that kind of came out of my mouth.

"It's pure joy. There's no other feeling than bliss."

This is her most significant run in her rebooted tennis career.

She will be the lowest-ranked player in the Australian Open quarter-finals, and will start as an outsider to make the last four against either Australian Daria Gavrilova or fifth-seed Karolina Pliskova on Wednesday.